Japan Airlines (JL) and All Nippon Airways (NH) on January 6 released the respective traffic results for the New Year holiday running from December 23, 2010 to January 5, 2011. The aggregate number of international passengers carried by the two airlines declined by 21.1 percent year-on-year to 531,480. The total seat capacity was decreased by 15.6 percent to 686,766 and the average seat load factor was down by 5.3 percentage points to 77.3 percent. By airlines, JAL, seeking a return to profitability, managed to maintain its average seat load factor at the 80 percent level by reducing the seat capacity substantially, whilst ANA achieved a modest growth in terms of passenger loads by significantly increasing its seat capacity.

JAL, although its passenger numbers declined substantially by 30.7 percent to 322,844, managed to keep its average seat load factor at 80.4 percent by decreasing its seat capacity by 28.3 percent to 401,750. By the airlineâ€™s destinations, its Korea route enjoyed a seat load factor of 88.1 percent, followed by the Oceania route with an 87.6 percent seat load factor, the Hawaii route with 86.7 percent and the Transpacific with 85.7 percent,
maintaining a high seat load factor respectively.

Meanwhile, the number of international passengers transported by ANA edged up by 0.4 percent to 208,636, posting a positive traffic growth. However, as the airline increased its seat capacity by 12.5 percent to 285,016, the average seat load factor fell by 8.8 percentage points to 73.2 percent. By destinations, the airlineâ€™s passenger loads went up on all the routes except for the China route which dropped by 22.1 percent. The Honolulu route, in particular, surged by 53.1 percent with the average seat load factor of as high as 85.8 percent, up by 3.8 percentage points.

The aggregate number of domestic passengers carried by JAL and ANA declined by 7.4 percent to 2,636,779. The total seat capacity offered was down by 8.5 percent to 4,226,124, registering the average seat load factor of 62.4 percent, up by 0.7 percentage points.

Travel Vision Inc. provides information on the travel industry in Japan via "Daily Travel Vision", a Japanese-language e-mail newsletter, and the "Travel Vision" website. There are nearly 110,000 people working in the Japanese travel industry, and Travel Vision is proud to be bringing travel news to more than 30,000 people through Daily Travel Vision.

Japan Airlines (JL) and All Nippon Airways (NH) on December 16 revealed the respective seat capacity offered during the New Year holiday period from December 23, 2010 to January 5, 2011. The consolidated capacity offered by the two airlines declined by 15.8 percent year-on-year to 688,838 seats. The total number of bookings decreased by 22.7 percent to 533,801, bringing the booking rate down by 6.9 percentage points to 77.5 percent. Apparently, there is a difference in a business performance between Japan Airlines which is downsizing its operations amid the restructuring efforts and All Nippon Airways which is aiming for a further growth with its international operations as its main business pillar. Both airlines, however, seem to suffer from some negative impacts such as the unfavorable calendar dates over the New Year holiday and the pressing issue of territorial rights over the Senkaku Islands with China.

JAL decreased its transport capacity by 28.4 percent to 403,890 seats and the number of bookings fell by 32.6 percent to 324,930. However, the booking rate, although it declined by 5.0 percentage points, remains at 80.5 percent. By destinations, the airlineâ€™s Honolulu route sees a booking rate increasing by 1.7 percentage points to 91.1 percent. The Guam route shows a booking rate of 88.1 percent, down by 1.4 percentage points.

On the other hand, ANA substantially increased its seat capacity by 12.0 percent to 284,948, whilst the number of bookings edged up only by 0.1 percent to 208,871, registering its booking rate of 73.3 percent, down by 8.7 percentage points. By destinations, the airlineâ€™s Europe and China routes show a double-digit decline in terms of the booking rate. The Honolulu route, however, enjoys a booking rate of 95.4 percent, up by 4.2 percentage points, beating JAL on the same route.

Meanwhile, in terms of domestic routes, JAL reduced its transport capacity by 22.0 percent to 1,937,468 seats. As the number of bookings fell by smaller 18.2 percent to 1,049,772, the booking rate was up by 2.5 percentage points to 54.2 percent. ANA, on the other hand, increased its seat capacity by 4.2 percent to 2,608,864. With the number of bookings increasing by 6.3 percent to 1,358,046, the airlineâ€™s booking rate posts an increase of 1.0 percentage point to 52.1 percent. The two airlines together bring the total seat capacity of 4,546,332, down by 8.9 percent. The aggregate number of bookings made on the two airlines declined by 6.0 percent with a booking rate of 53.0 percent, up by 1.6 percentage points.

Travel Vision Inc. provides information on the travel industry in Japan via "Daily Travel Vision", a Japanese-language e-mail newsletter, and the "Travel Vision" website. There are nearly 110,000 people working in the Japanese travel industry, and Travel Vision is proud to be bringing travel news to more than 30,000 people through Daily Travel Vision.

The number of international passengers carried by All Nippon Airways rose by 4.7% year-on-year to 381,954, registering a year-on-year positive growth for 15 consecutive months since August 2009. As both the Europe and North America routes enjoyed an excellent traffic growth, the Asia and Oceania routes also remained unchanged from the previous year. However, while seat capacity, as measured by available seat kilometers (ASK), increased by 10.0 percent, traffic, as measured by revenue passenger kilo meters (RPK), rose by smaller 8.3 percent. Consequently, the average seat load factor declined by 1.3 percent to 79.8 percent.

By ANAâ€™s destination, the Europe route showed an excellent year-on-year traffic increase of 27.0 percent to 53,794 passengers. The North America route also enjoyed a 7.5 percent traffic increase to 77,333. The respective seat load factor, however, fell from the year-ago month with the exception of the North America. The airlineâ€™s Europe route, although declined by 4.8 percentage point, recorded its highest seat load factor of 85.1 percent.

Meanwhile, the cumulative number of passengers transported by ANA since April this year rose by 15.6 percent to 2,681,291. Both ASK and RPK increased by 4.1 and 11.5 percent respectively, registering an average seat load factor of 80.0 percent. In terms of the domestic traffic, the passenger numbers transported in the month of October increased by 5.8 percent to 3,616,475. While ASK was reduced by 2.2 percent, RPK increased by 5.9 percent, bringing its average seat load factor to 70.7 percent. The cumulative domestic passenger loads were up 2.8 percent year-on-year. With ASK and RPK climbing by 4.7 and 3.0 percent respectively, the airline averaged its seat load factor at 66.2 percent.

Travel Vision Inc. provides information on the travel industry in Japan via "Daily Travel Vision", a Japanese-language e-mail newsletter, and the "Travel Vision" website. There are nearly 110,000 people working in the Japanese travel industry, and Travel Vision is proud to be bringing travel news to more than 30,000 people through Daily Travel Vision.